Exodus 20:4

20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image ¹  or any likeness ²  of anything ³  that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. ⁴ 

Exodus 20:23

20:23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, ⁵  nor make gods of gold for yourselves. ⁶ 

Leviticus 19:4

19:4 Do not turn to idols, ⁷  and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal. I am the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 12:3

12:3 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ⁸  burn up their sacred Asherah poles, ⁹  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

Psalms 115:4-8

115:4 Their ¹⁰  idols are made of silver and gold –

they are man-made. ¹¹ 

115:5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,

eyes, but cannot see,

115:6 ears, but cannot hear,

noses, but cannot smell,

115:7 hands, but cannot touch,

feet, but cannot walk.

They cannot even clear their throats. ¹² 

115:8 Those who make them will end up ¹³  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Isaiah 40:18-25

40:18 To whom can you compare God?

To what image can you liken him?

40:19 A craftsman casts ¹⁴  an idol;

a metalsmith overlays it with gold

and forges silver chains for it.

40:20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; ¹⁵ 

he then seeks a skilled craftsman

to make ¹⁶  an idol that will not fall over.

40:21 Do you not know?

Do you not hear?

Has it not been told to you since the very beginning?

Have you not understood from the time the earth’s foundations were made?

40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; ¹⁷ 

its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. ¹⁸ 

He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, ¹⁹ 

and spreads it out ²⁰  like a pitched tent. ²¹ 

40:23 He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing;

he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant.

40:24 Indeed, they are barely planted;

yes, they are barely sown;

yes, they barely take root in the earth,

and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up,

and the wind carries them away like straw.

40:25 “To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?”

says the Holy One. ²² 

Isaiah 44:9-20

44:9 All who form idols are nothing;

the things in which they delight are worthless.

Their witnesses cannot see;

they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.

44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol

that will prove worthless? ²³ 

44:11 Look, all his associates ²⁴  will be put to shame;

the craftsmen are mere humans. ²⁵ 

Let them all assemble and take their stand!

They will panic and be put to shame.

44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool ²⁶ 

and forges metal over the coals.

He forms it ²⁷  with hammers;

he makes it with his strong arm.

He gets hungry and loses his energy; ²⁸ 

he drinks no water and gets tired.

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ²⁹ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ³⁰ 

he scrapes ³¹  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ³² 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ³³ 

44:14 He cuts down cedars

and acquires a cypress ³⁴  or an oak.

He gets ³⁵  trees from the forest;

he plants a cedar ³⁶  and the rain makes it grow.

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ³⁷ 

he takes some of it and warms himself.

Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.

Then he makes a god and worships it;

he makes an idol and bows down to it. ³⁸ 

44:16 Half of it he burns in the fire –

over that half he cooks ³⁹  meat;

he roasts a meal and fills himself.

Yes, he warms himself and says,

‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’

44:17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol;

he bows down to it and worships it.

He prays to it, saying,

‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’

44:18 They do not comprehend or understand,

for their eyes are blind and cannot see;

their minds do not discern. ⁴⁰ 

44:19 No one thinks to himself,

nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:

‘I burned half of it in the fire –

yes, I baked bread over the coals;

I roasted meat and ate it.

With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?

Should I bow down to dry wood?’ ⁴¹ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ⁴² 

his deceived mind misleads him.

He cannot rescue himself,

nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ ⁴³ 

Jeremiah 10:3-5

10:3 For the religion ⁴⁴  of these people is worthless.

They cut down a tree in the forest,

and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. ⁴⁵ 

10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold.

He uses hammer and nails to fasten it ⁴⁶  together

so that it will not fall over.

10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.

They cannot talk.

They must be carried

because they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them

because they cannot hurt you.

And they do not have any power to help you.” ⁴⁷ 

Jeremiah 10:8

10:8 The people of those nations ⁴⁸  are both stupid and foolish.

Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ⁴⁹ 

Habakkuk 2:18-19

2:18 What good ⁵⁰  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ⁵¹ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ⁵² 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ⁵³ 

and make ⁵⁴  such mute, worthless things?

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ⁵⁵  –

he who says ⁵⁶  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ⁵⁷ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

John 16:2

16:2 They will put you out of ⁵⁸  the synagogue, ⁵⁹  yet a time ⁶⁰  is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. ⁶¹ 

[20:4]  ¹ tn A פֶּסֶל (pesel) is an image that was carved out of wood or stone. The Law was concerned with a statue that would be made for the purpose of worship, an idol to be venerated, and not any ordinary statue.

[20:4]  ² tn The word תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) refers to the mental pattern from which the פֶּסֶל (pesel) is constructed; it is a real or imagined resemblance. If this is to stand as a second object to the verb, then the verb itself takes a slightly different nuance here. It would convey “you shall not make an image, neither shall you conceive a form” for worship (B. Jacob, Exodus, 547). Some simply make the second word qualify the first: “you shall not make an idol in the form of…” (NIV).

[20:4]  ³ tn Here the phrase “of anything” has been supplied.

[20:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “under the earth” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[20:23]  ⁵ tn The direct object of the verb must be “gods of silver.” The prepositional phrase modifies the whole verse to say that these gods would then be alongside the one true God.

[20:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “neither will you make for you gods of gold.”

[19:4]  ⁷ sn Regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִים, ’elilim), see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 126; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 304; N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NBC), 89; and Judith M. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:411. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god; God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless; weak; powerless; nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”

[12:3]  ⁸ sn Sacred pillars. These are the stelae (stone pillars; the Hebrew term is מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) associated with Baal worship, perhaps to mark a spot hallowed by an alleged visitation of the gods. See also Deut 7:5.

[12:3]  ⁹ sn Sacred Asherah poles. The Hebrew term (plural) is אֲשֵׁרִים (’asherim). See note on the word “(leafy) tree” in v. 2, and also Deut 7:5.

[115:4]  ¹⁰ tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).

[115:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”

[115:7]  ¹² tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).

[115:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.”

[40:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “pours out”; KJV “melteth.”

[40:20]  ¹⁵ tn The first two words of the verse (הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה, hamsukan tÿrumah) are problematic. Some take מְסֻכָּן as an otherwise unattested Pual participle from סָכַן (sakhan, “be poor”) and translate “the one who is impoverished.” תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah, “contribution”) can then be taken as an adverbial accusative, “with respect to a contribution,” and the entire line translated, “the one who is too impoverished for such a contribution [i.e., the metal idol of v. 19?] selects wood that will not rot.” However, מְסֻכָּן is probably the name of a tree used in idol manufacturing (cognate with Akkadian musukkanu, cf. H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 133). מְסֻכָּן may be a scribal interpretive addition attempting to specify עֵץ (’ets) or עֵץ may be a scribal attempt to categorize מְסֻכָּן. How an idol constitutes a תְּרוּמָה (“contribution”) is not entirely clear.

[40:20]  ¹⁶ tn Or “set up” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NASB “to prepare.”

[40:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[40:22]  ¹⁸ tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[40:22]  ¹⁹ tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).

[40:22]  ²⁰ tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.

[40:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”

[40:25]  ²² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[44:10]  ²³ tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”

[44:11]  ²⁴ tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.

[44:11]  ²⁵ sn The point seems to be this: If the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”

[44:12]  ²⁶ tn The noun מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad), which refers to some type of tool used for cutting, occurs only here and in Jer 10:3. See HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד.

[44:12]  ²⁷ tn Some English versions take the pronoun “it” to refer to an idol being fashioned by the blacksmith (cf. NIV, NCV, CEV). NLT understands the referent to be “a sharp tool,” which is then used by the carpenter in the following verse to carve an idol from wood.

[44:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”

[44:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”

[44:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ³² tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ³³ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

[44:14]  ³⁴ tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).

[44:14]  ³⁵ tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).

[44:14]  ³⁶ tn Some prefer to emend אֹרֶן (’oren) to אֶרֶז (’erez, “cedar”), but the otherwise unattested noun appears to have an Akkadian cognate, meaning “cedar.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 44-45. HALOT 90 s.v. I אֹרֶן offers the meaning “laurel.”

[44:15]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ³⁸ tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[44:16]  ³⁹ tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”

[44:18]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ⁴¹ tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.

[44:20]  ⁴² tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[10:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “statutes.” According to BDB 350 s.v. חֻקָּה 2.b it refers to the firmly established customs or practices of the pagan nations. Compare the usage in Lev 20:23; 2 Kgs 17:8. Here it is essentially equivalent to דֶּרֶךְ (derekh) in v. 1, which has already been translated “religious practices.”

[10:3]  ⁴⁵ sn This passage is dripping with sarcasm. It begins by talking about the “statutes” of the pagan peoples as a “vapor” using a singular copula and singular predicate. Then it suppresses the subject, the idol, as though it were too horrible to mention, using only the predications about it. The last two lines read literally: “[it is] a tree which one cuts down from the forest; the work of the hands of a craftsman with his chisel.”

[10:4]  ⁴⁶ tn The pronoun is plural in Hebrew, referring to the parts.

[10:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”

[10:8]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “Those wise people and kings are…” It is unclear whether the subject is the “they” of the nations in the preceding verse, or the wise people and kings referred to. The text merely has “they.”

[10:8]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “The instruction of vanities [worthless idols] is wood.” The meaning of this line is a little uncertain. Various proposals have been made to make sense, most of which involve radical emendation of the text. For some examples see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 323-24, fn 6. However, this is probably a case of the bold predication that discussed in GKC 452 §141.d, some examples of which may be seen in Ps 109:4 “I am prayer,” and Ps 120:7 “I am peace.”

[2:18]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.

[2:18]  ⁵² tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.

[2:18]  ⁵³ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “to make.”

[2:19]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:19]  ⁵⁶ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ⁵⁷ tn Though the Hebrew text has no formal interrogative marker here, the context indicates that the statement should be taken as a rhetorical question anticipating the answer, “Of course not!” (so also NIV, NRSV).

[16:2]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “expel you from.”

[16:2]  ⁵⁹ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[16:2]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:2]  ⁶¹ sn Jesus now refers not to the time of his return to the Father, as he has frequently done up to this point, but to the disciples’ time of persecution. They will be excommunicated from Jewish synagogues. There will even be a time when those who kill Jesus’ disciples will think that they are offering service to God by putting the disciples to death. Because of the reference to service offered to God, it is almost certain that Jewish opposition is intended here in both cases rather than Jewish opposition in the first instance (putting the disciples out of synagogues) and Roman opposition in the second (putting the disciples to death). Such opposition materializes later and is recorded in Acts: The stoning of Stephen in 7:58-60 and the slaying of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:2-3 are notable examples.